We are focusing on wrapping up everything for our rough inspection: electric, plumbing, building and fire, and we have been busy!
Electric
Rough electric inspection requires that all wires be run to outlets and switches and be tied into the new electric panel.
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| Blair Witch wall |
We have temporarily back-fed the new panel with a 50amp breaker to the old panel (black wire on the bottom left) just so the new lights circuits could be tied into the new panel and still work. In the summer we will have the power company come in and upgrade our service from 100amp to a 200amp service and then we will wire the new panel from the new meter. The new panel accommodates 36 breakers and it is already almost full. We will need to install a sub panel to accommodate all of the A/C and Heat equipment.
We also ran power for hardwired smoke / CO alarms. No more changing batteries 2 times per year and when one alarm is set off all alarms go off at the same time. Every floor as well as every bedroom has a hardwired alarm. A lot of work and material cost but safety first!
Plumbing
We recently found out that one of the two 3" PVC lines going to the septic was a "dry well" line. Many years ago dry well drain lines were common, but are now illegal. The thought was to only have your toilets and showers go into the septic and all sinks bi-pass the septic and drain straight into the leeching field in order to extend the life of your septic. Because of this we tied all fixtures into the main septic line and capped the dry well.
We also have to finish all shower / tub fixtures before rough inspection. It is a lot more complicated than one might think. Each shower / tub fixture must have a thermostatic mixing valve as per 2014 code. Even though we have installed a water distribution manifold, which will normaly eliminate the chance of scalding, the code requires it. The pics below are of our master bath shower. There will be the option of: above head rain, direct shower nozzle, hand held shower wand, or any combination of the three.
Attic Floor
To prep for the HVAC ducts we needed to install new attic flooring. It was an arduous task to say the least, I was alone, trying to install 23/32 composite 8'x4' interlocking floor panels which weigh about 60 lbs each.
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| Sitting on a ceiling joist. It's a different perspective when there is no ceiling. |
HVAC (Air Ducts)
This is the first time in the history of the blogs 10 posts when I will say the following: "I have no experience" in HVAC ducting and we hired a company to do the work. Luckily, I have contacts from a previous life in the construction field. We were more then impressed with their price and work (doesn't hurt to have connections). Still, I did my homework (heat loss / gain calculations) and I gave them a plan as you will see below:
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| Attic and HVAC Trunk |
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| Every register has its own damper, which means we can adjust the airflow to any single register. |
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| Every main room has three registers as pictured above. All with dedicated 6" tubing. Overkill? Yes. Best in practice? Yes |
We will continue to prep for the rough inspection, which we hope will be in the end of March. After that comes the fun things: Paint, kitchen, bathrooms...
